Placard Peril: City Workers Still Flouting New York’s Parking Laws as Enforcement Falters

By: Carl Schwartzbaum

In the heart of Downtown Brooklyn — steps from courthouses, city agencies, and police precincts — rows of cars lined Adams and Johnson Streets this week, defying every visible parking rule. Some bore faded government placards; others displayed phony permits, fluorescent MTA vests, or no identification at all. In a report that appeared on Wednesday, The New York Post revealed what many New Yorkers have long suspected: illegal parking by city workers and contractors has become not an exception, but a daily ritual — and one met with almost no consequences.

Even after the publication of a damning new report by City Councilman Lincoln Restler, whose office documented widespread parking abuse and lax enforcement across a 60-block stretch of Downtown Brooklyn, city employees and contractors were still at it — clogging curbs, crosswalks, and bike lanes with virtual impunity.

“Where else am I supposed to park?” one uniformed woman snapped when approached by The New York Post on Adams Street Tuesday morning. She refused further comment before driving off, repeating only: “There’s no parking.”

That sense of entitlement — or perhaps resignation — has become emblematic of what Restler calls a “systemic breakdown” in street management.

Restler’s analysis, released Monday, paints a staggering picture of dysfunction. Over the course of the study, an average of 457 cars per day were found to be parked illegally across the 60-block survey zone. On Adams Street near the Kings County Courthouse, where much of the illegal activity was concentrated, The New York Post counted dozens of vehicles bearing official or falsified government credentials.

Nearly 63 cars per day, on average, were illegally stationed just outside the courthouse, the report noted — a number that Restler’s team deemed both “dangerous” and “unsustainable.”

“The safety, quality of life, and general walkability of Downtown Brooklyn are threatened by rampant illegal parking across the neighborhood,” the report stated. “Illegal parking is more than just a nuisance: illegally parked cars force pedestrians, strollers, wheelchairs and cyclists into traffic, limit visibility, undermine safety, and prevent emergency vehicle access.”

The New York Post, which verified the report’s findings firsthand, described curbs overflowing with vehicles from agencies including the Department of Probation, Housing Preservation and Development, and even the Sheriff’s Office. Many of the cars featured laminated signs or official-looking passes that allowed them to remain parked without tickets — despite clear violations.

On Johnson Street, all but one vehicle were illegally parked, most with placards labeled “New York State Judicial.” Others relied on counterfeit or expired documentation, while a few drivers simply placed city-issued safety vests on dashboards as improvised badges of exemption.

Despite the scale of the violations, enforcement has been almost nonexistent. Restler’s data found that only 3% of illegally parked vehicles during the observation period — from May 26 to June 20 — were issued a ticket.

That means 97% of offenders faced no penalty whatsoever, a failure that the councilman calls “a direct assault on the rule of law and on public safety.”

According to the report, an average of just 12 parking tickets per day were issued across the area, far short of the hundreds of daily violations observed.

Restler’s findings echo previous investigations by The New York Post, which has repeatedly chronicled the abuse of city-issued parking placards. Placards — designed to help government officials and essential employees perform their duties — have become de facto “get-out-of-ticket-free cards” for thousands of city and state workers.

Now, with 60,000 active city-issued placards circulating, according to the councilman, critics say the system has spiraled beyond accountability.

“It’s a culture of entitlement,” Restler told The New York Post on Tuesday. “Too many people believe that a city placard is a license to park anywhere — on sidewalks, in bike lanes, even in front of hydrants — and that no one will stop them.”

Illegal parking, as The New York Post reported, is not confined to courthouse blocks. The problem extends across Downtown Brooklyn’s arteries:

Tillary Street between Prince and Navy Streets has become a perennial hotspot, with vehicles routinely parked under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway despite “No Standing” signs.

FDNY Engine 207/Ladder 110, located on Tillary Street, has long contended with city workers parking on sidewalks and crosswalks outside the station.

The NYPD Transit Special Victims Unit on Gold Street has been another chronic offender zone, where agency employees and contractors park in no-standing zones with impunity.

Outside the Kings County Courthouse, where more than 60% of vehicles sported official credentials, Restler’s office noted that city employees already enjoy privileged access to 180 designated street spots and a 36-car private lot on city parkland — an arrangement he now wants reviewed.

“It’s been used as a parking lot for too many years,” Restler told The New York Post. “My hope is that we can do a careful review of the many hundreds of on-street parking spots that are reserved for city officials all across Downtown Brooklyn.”

The NYPD, bristling at the criticism, pushed back against Restler’s report and the New York Post’s coverage. A department spokesperson insisted that police “aggressively” enforce parking laws in Downtown Brooklyn and have already issued 113,429 summonses this year, including 821 specifically for placard abuse.

According to the department, officers have also towed 2,018 vehicles and booted 511 in 2024 alone, while installing “Tow Away Zone” signage at known violation hubs like Tillary and Navy Streets.

“The 84th Precinct continues to address illegal parking daily,” the NYPD told The New York Post, adding that the Transportation Bureau “supplements any additional enforcement and resources as needed.”

Yet critics say those numbers tell only part of the story. “What good are 113,000 tickets if the same people park illegally the next day?” asked one Brooklyn Heights resident, speaking with The New York Post. “There’s no deterrence when government workers are ticket-proof.”

In the wake of the report, Restler has unveiled a legislative package aimed at dismantling what he calls a “broken placard system.” His proposals include:

Revoking 60,000 city-issued parking placards currently in circulation.

Establishing a citizen bounty program, empowering residents to report illegally parked vehicles and share in the resulting fines.

Conducting a comprehensive audit of city employee parking privileges, particularly in high-density neighborhoods.

The citizen bounty initiative, modeled on the city’s successful anti-idling law, could allow New Yorkers to earn a small percentage of ticket revenues for documented violations. “If agencies can’t enforce their own rules,” Restler said to The New York Post, “then citizens will.”

For many observers, the scandal encapsulates a deeper crisis in how New York’s streets are managed. Once designed for pedestrians, public plazas, and transit, the city’s public spaces have gradually been surrendered to bureaucratic convenience.

As The New York Post report noted, the abuse of government parking privileges sends a corrosive message to the public: that city employees operate above the law. The lack of enforcement — even when abuses occur in full view of the courthouse — erodes trust not only in traffic management, but in governance itself.

“This isn’t just about parking,” The New York Post report argued. “It’s about accountability. When public servants break the law without consequence, the city loses its moral authority to enforce the law at all.”

For now, the illegally parked cars remain — scattered across Adams, Johnson, and Tillary Streets, flouting traffic laws and public patience alike. But with mounting public pressure and heightened scrutiny from both the media and City Council, change may finally be coming.

Restler insists he’s undeterred. “Our streets belong to all New Yorkers,” he told The New York Post. “Not to a privileged few with placards.”

If his reforms pass, they could redefine how New York balances public space and public power — and whether the city’s workers, long accustomed to parking above the law, will finally be held to the same rules as everyone else.